Want to buy a piece of Canadian paradise on the west coast? After living in this house on Bowen Island for 23 years, it is with sadness and trepidation that I’ve decided to sell and move.
1478 Tunstall Blvd., Bowen Island, BC Canada is for sale:
$1,125,000 CAD
($828K USD, €744K, £631,500).
The house is on a triple-lot of 0.81 acres, just up the road from Tunstall Bay Beach. The front half is house and yard (fully fenced) the back half is forest; it is divided diagonally by a creek. It has a flat and easy access, with off road parking for 4 cars.
The house itself was built in 1988 by Robert Jordan, who fashioned it after an Austrian house which, while not a style I would have chosen, works remarkably well in our rainy winters, with its 4+ foot overhangs keeping the foundation (and anyone sitting outside) nice and dry. It’s incredibly well built, of 2×6 fir construction, 4×8 and 6 x8 joists, and massive beams supporting the base and the 2nd floor, and it’s insulated to the max.
I bought the house in 2001, and over the next 2 years my partner and I gutted it, and completely rebuilt the inside, opening it up, and installed new solid fir double-paned doors and windows, and a standing wall of windows looking onto the forest at the back.
The living room has an efficient airtight wood stove (WETT certified) and, of course, that wall of windows. This house both holds the heat in the winter, and stays naturally cool in the summer (provided we don’t get a heat dome). While the living room looks onto the cool forest, the kitchen soaks up the sun.
The kitchen corner faces south, with a south-east entrance from the front deck, and south-west access to the large side deck. The kitchen has custom fir cabinets, butcher-block counter tops, fir and porcelain tile floors, and a propane gas range.
Off the kitchen is a small, porcelain-tiled bathroom with shower—and partial coin floor.
In 2023 I added a porch to the side of the house, with a custom painted floor (by me, of course), which now serves as the main entrance to the house.
In the foyer is a storage bench which folds down into a not-quite double bed for guests.
The front deck has an awning to keep the heat down on summer days, and the side deck has another awning, plus an area with Coolio shades. Some like it hot, others like it cool.
Upstairs has a large, open studio space with skylights and a door to a southwest balcony. I have some massive paper drawers in there, but when they’re gone, this space could be turned into a separate room, though I can’t imagine why you’d do that unless you had kids or something.
On the other side of the stairs from the studio is a 2nd bedroom that used to be open, like the studio, but now has walls and a door. I’m currently using it for organizing and packing, but it’s a nice little room.
On the other side of the wall from the 2nd bedroom is the large main bedroom. It has built-in fir cabinets behind the bed, and a skylight through which I have spent many a sleepless night looking up at the stars. In fact it was through this skylight that I saw a StarLink train of lights and honestly thought aliens had come to earth! What an exciting moment that was! But alas, it was only Elon Musk.
The upstairs walls are only 7′ high and open above that, to allow the light from the 3 skylights to fill the whole space.
The bedroom also has a door to the north-east balcony, same as on the other side, looking over the garden. Because of the bushes and trees, this is a nicely private area and, if you smoke, an excellent place for a morning cigarette.
Between the bedroom and the large upstairs bathroom there is a walk-in closet with plenty of room for clothes, shoes, sheets, and large stashes of fabric.
20 years ago this was just an ordinarily nice bathroom, with green slate tile and a fir countertop, and view onto the back forest.
But just this year, before I knew I was going to sell, I made the most beautiful shower with small mosaic tiles. This is a piece of original art designed and executed by me that, quite frankly, should be worth about $40K on its own n’est-ce pas? With shiny external copper piping, it has a hand-held shower and overhead rain shower. I designed it so I could lie down it in. And crawl into it. Crawl into it and lie down and have a shower, for when you’re very, very tired. Enjoy those tiles and know that it’s killing me not to be enjoying them myself. It also has a door to the south-west balcony, and if you have blinds down, you can go dry off there, completely naked, and no-one can see you. Honest!
Floor Plan
The Garden
I also spent 20 years working on the garden, adding hundreds of shrubs, trees and perennials (partial list below), which now surround the house. The garden is established but ever changing, and there’s room for more.
- 5 varieties of Dogwood
- 10 hydrangeas
- 3 magnolias
- 12 japanese maples
- 10 Rhododendrons
- 30 roses
- vines, including 5 clematis, 2 wisteria, 3 honeysuckle, virginia creeper, etc.
- many unique conifers
- other shrubs and trees such as lilac, choysia, wigelia, kolkwitzia, dappled willow, barberry, ninebark, styarax obassia, styrax japonica, redbud, black locust ‘twisty baby’, dappled willow, smoke bush, barberry, a young Garry oak …
- too many perrennials to list
Other details:
- The total square footage of the house is 1492 sf
- There is a 8×12-foot shed (100 sf) which is insulated and powered, a much smaller weird tool shed, and a disintegrating wood shed.
- The house sits on concrete piles and has a crawl space full of wood flooring, siding and other useful things.
- 200 amp Electrical service
- electric baseboard heating + wood stove (electricity in BC is cheap)
- Hot water tank is under the house
- Tunstall Bay has a community water system and it’s the best water on the island.
- septic tank and field
- solid cedar fence separates the house from the road
- The house is loaded with electrical outlets—I hate not being able to find a nearby outlet!
This is a special house. It has a great feel, which everyone who has visited has commented upon. It’s solid, and warm and quiet, but if you leave the back windows open (as I do) you can hear the birds in the morning and owls (which are also birds) at night. I’ve watched a pileated woodpecker rip shreds of wood bigger than its body off the tall stump out back, and toss them over its shoulder. We have ravens and bald eagles and blue herons galore.
Bowen Island
Is the closest island to Vancouver, BC (Canada!), being a 20 minute ferry ride from the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal off West Vancouver. Having said that, though many people commute to Vancouver from here, I don’t recommend it. Work from home or just hang out here. Bowen has 2 well-stocked grocery stores, an independent butcher shop specializing in natural, ethically raised meats, various farms for fresh produce, a pharmacy, post office, medical centre (no hospital though), library, fire, police and ambulance, several restaurants, a gas station, a pet supply store, a cannabis store (remember it’s legal in Canada and you can get super, super high for incredibly cheap!) and various small galleries and gift shops. I usually don’t leave the island for months at a time.
The island itself is gorgeous, with rocky shores, pebbly beaches (and a couple of sand beaches), forests, streams, lakes, and a small mountain. And yes, we regularly see whales here: mostly orca and humpback whales, as well as seals and sea lions.
The climate is moderate. Very similar to Britain, and Seattle. It mostly rains in the winter; sometimes it snows but it doesn’t hang around for long. It’s warm-to-hot in the summer, but seldom too hot and seldom muggy. Spring starts in January with early-blooming cherry trees, and lasts until June. The body of water we are on is the Georgia Straight, sandwiched between the mainland and the very big Vancouver Island, which protects us from tidal waves cause by asian nuclear power plant melt-downs. The water is cold until about July, though one year I swam in May.
To arrange a viewing or make an offer please contact my agent:
Frazer B. Elliott Personal Real Estate Corporation, Macdonald Realty Ltd.
+1-604-910-3401, or through the official real estate listing here: